Forgotten
by Redlance-ck
Summary: Claire's memories are gone. She has no idea who she is or who to trust. Enter Alice; as alien to her as everything outside of the bubble she's been lost in for the last 18 months, and yet there's a foreign familiarity that Claire can't shake. Alice/Claire


**Okay. So this has been done a bunch of times already, but i wanted a shot at it myself. ;) It's setting during 'Resident Evil: Afterlife', so if you haven't seen it yet (why not?) you might want to jump over this and find one set during 'Extinction'. Unless you don't care about being spoiled, then go right ahead. :) I'm not 100% sure where this is going, and i can't promise that it will be updated as frequently as some of the others floating around here, but i hope you enjoy reading it as much as i enjoy writing it and that you'll still around to see where it ends up. Reviews are love, drop me one if you get a second. ;) **

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Her memories were gone. Her identity lay in pieces, scattered inside the seemingly impenetrable fortress her mind had become. Time had no meaning and she had no clue as to when her existence started, when it would end. Everything was dark and frightening, even in the daylight. She felt like she was waiting for something, someone, and it made her twitchy. Made her skin crawl. She felt like she was being chased, always being chased, and something kept telling her - screaming at her - that soon enough she would be too tired to keep running. It was as though everything was there, everything that made her who she was - whoever that might be - like a bright light at the end of a dark tunnel she couldn't reach the end of. All she knew was fear, darkness, and despair.

Until she found her.

She came like a beacon of light, as frightening to Claire as she was brilliant, shattering the darkness and all that she'd known, making her run again. But before she ran, she froze. Hidden within the small collection of trees and bushes, she watched the woman appear as if from nowhere and walk out onto the beach. The light following her, illuminating things she hadn't previously seen. She'd been drawn by the sound of footsteps, able to hear them after so long with nothing but the sound of her own heartbeat and breathing filling the void she was lost in. One even the murmuring water couldn't penetrate. The woman's feet had scraped against the sand as she walked out, towards the helicopter, and the noise had made her wince. Unfamiliar, grating against her ears and making her eyes hurt. She watched the woman move through unfocused eyes and tried to comprehend what she was seeing, but her brain wouldn't work. She saw her move from the helicopter and eventually sit on a well weathered log, pulling something from her pocket. She began to speak. And it was as though her mind, addled and scraped until it was blank, exploded. Pain tore through her, igniting every nerve ending in her body until it felt as though she were hotter than the sun. Her chest was being torn, shredding until her insides were exposed and raw, almost felling her with the pain of it. But then the darkness flooded back, comforting in it's bleak, suffocating familiarity, and her blood rushed in her ears. Still, somehow the voice reached her. It found a weakness in the thick, inky blankness and penetrated it, sifting light back in. And blinding her.

So, she ran. Taking great, desperate gulps of air as she did so. She was aware that the woman had moved, had felt and heard rather than see her do it, and heard her voice. Crisp and clear and oh so loud.

"Hey! Wait!" And Claire felt something she couldn't recall ever feeling before. Something, deep inside, tugged at her. Tried to pull her with all of its might, tried - it felt - to rip her in two. But somehow, she found strength enough within her to push her legs forward. Further toward the quiet of the dark, away from the deafening noise of the light. She ran until she was surrounded by great metal structures, familiar through the ebbing blackness she was trying to desperately to catch, and kept running until her hands rested on cool steel and she sank to her knees, breathing heavily. "Wait! Please! Stop!" Her head throbbed, her torso ached. "Hello?" Her heart felt like it was dying, like it was being drowned. For a blissful second, all was still and quiet and dim, the sound of her breathing the only thing she could hear once more. But then;

"Hello?" It splintered and cracked and began to fall away. And panic gripped her. Primal and urgent and spurred by the fear of something she couldn't comprehend. Every whisper of sound that wasn't her own echoed inside her mind, ripping and tearing at it, allowing beams of bright light to filter through. The pure realness of it burned her, she wanted it gone. Missed the numb solace of the dark. "Answer me." The voice cut through the invisible barrier that shielded her mind from everything, helpful and harmful, like a razor. If she would just stop talking. If she would just be still. She clamped her hands over her ears, slamming her eyes shut, but nothing helped. The door of the plane creaked and she heard the sound of something being pulled from a sheath, heard feet that weren't her own moving over the soft ground, heard the jarring clatter that heralded the departing of crows. Though the sound was nothing compared to blast that finally pushed her upwards when she heard the woman exhale noisily. Then it was all fury and rage and there was a knife in her hand that she didn't remember drawing. She just wanted the woman to stop, to go so she could be alone again. Alone with nothing, no confusion or light or sound that hurt. There was a flash of brilliant aquamarine eyes, pale skin and red lips and she felt her brain scream, felt her chest burn. Felt some distant echo of a forgotten dream that held the moment in a brief eternity. And then she lunged. There was a warm body beneath her and the handle of a blade between her hands and if she could just push harder, get the woman's eyes to close, then she was sure the numbness would return. That the pain would leave. But hands at her wrists were preventing her, burning her skin and sending fire along her arms. The woman, gritting her teeth, pushed a knee between them and forced her up and over. The air left her lungs, and that burned too. She rolled and stood, lashing out almost blindly with the blade. Because she could almost see too much with the light, everything was unfamiliar. She didn't connect, was able to register her mistakes before the boot connected with her chest and sent her backwards into the cold metal of the plane. There was a final flash of the woman's face before she fell and her head connected with the wing of the aircraft.

Then finally, there was darkness.


End file.
